Birthdate: 25th May 1803
Nationality: American
Bio:
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 in Boston, Massachusetts. He came from a long line of Protestant clergy and grew up in a intellectual household. Emerson was educated at Harvard where he studied Divinity and Philosophy. However, after his wife died of tuberculosis in 1831, Emerson began to question conventional Christian dogma and eventually left the ministry in 1832.
Emerson became known as the leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the late 1820s and 1830s. Transcendentalism was a loosely organized intellectual and social movement that was rooted in New England Unitarianism but also influenced by German Idealism. The Transcendentalists maintained that divine inspiration, intuitions of mind, and nature were valid sources of knowledge alongside empirical reason and scientific evidence. Emerson was also influenced by eastern philosophy, and believed that enlightenment could be achieved through intuition and introspection, rather than through the senses and intellect alone.
In 1837, Emerson published his essay Nature, which laid out many of the principles of Transcendentalism. In this influential work, Emerson put forth his vision of nature as a manifestation of spirit, the interrelatedness of all creation, and the ongoing self-revelation of God in nature. He also developed ideas about nonconformity to social expectations and living according to higher spiritual truths. This work established Emerson as a leading thinker and voice of the Transcendentalist movement in America.
Throughout his life, Emerson continued writing and publishing essays on topics of philosophy, literature, and society. He gained popularity as a lecturer, traveling throughout the U.S. to give speeches on subjects ranging from politics to spirituality. Emerson promoted individuality, free thinking, and following one’s inner spirit rather than conformity to traditional views. His writings greatly influenced the New England intellectual elite and laid the groundwork for future generations of American thinkers. Emerson spent his later years at his home in Concord, Massachusetts continuing his writing and thinking until his death in 1882.
